On the day that Eastern Michigan University fired its basketball coach earlier this year, one of the school’s regents, Jim Stapleton, scolded athletic department officials for the decision. Not necessarily because he thought coach Charles Ramsey had done a stellar job - in six years, Ramsey compiled a 68-118 record. But Stapleton believed the $176,416 it cost to buy out the remaining year of Ramsey’s contract was an expense the cash-strapped school could not afford.
The decision showed “a stunning lack of sensitivity to where we find ourselves fiscally as an institution,” Stapleton said at the time. Today, the extent of Eastern Michigan’s precarious financial position will be made clear. With an $11.4 million cut in state appropriations looming, regents will vote on the school’s annual budget. Combined with a possible $12 million increase in expenses, EMU could face a $23.4 million shortfall.
